There were the post Babri Masjid demolition riots of 1992 that spilled over to the early 2013.

Then there was Gujrat 2002.

Now we have Muzaffarnagar 2013.

All of them massive riots in which massive loss of life and property has been sustained by the minority community in India.

India has a an elephant in its drawing room.

Now what is this elephant in the drawing room?

This is a metaphor for the irony associated with the so called modern civilized method to solve problem.

People say that you should solve your problems amicably, with diplomacy, with negotiations.

Metaphorically this might lead to you accommodating an elephant in your drawing room. Every one will know about its existence but no one will be willing to talk about it.

And we in India do have an elephant in our collective drawing room. It is the elephant of communal riots. The clashes between the majority an minority communities.

And many have since conclude that these euphemistic descriptions hide more than they reveal. These riots are in reality pogroms against a hapless minority.

No one is willing to talk about them in times of peace.
Perhaps the logic is to let the sleeping lions be.
Or let the sleeping monsters be. Who can argue against that?

And in troubled times there is more reason to do so.
Who would like to be on the radar of the law enforcing agencies by talking about such things in times of crisis?

And hence the elephant in the drawing room is left ignored at all times.

No one is willing to look at the trouble in the face.

Even if the problem grows from bad to worse over the time.

And just for the record what was worse this time?

For one the riots have reached villages.
Villages were the places where the old bonds of rural love had so far been effective against the venom f communal hatred.
No more.
The spread of the so called communal violence, actually the pogroms against the minority, has been very extensive this time.

"Rumi and Hafez have been the guiding light, Rumi especially, of
American poetry for the last five or ten years. But also it seems to me
that if we're ...criticizing the Muslim world so much, we should be able
to give thanks for the genius that is there...So, this is Persian
poetry-14th century.

Friday, September 27, 2013

Several years ago yours truly got interested in Amir Khusro.
That is a big name in the history of letters in India.
A man who used several languages with ease.
Avadhi, Brij Bhasha, Persian.
Wrote a book each in the style of all the great poets of Persian language before his times.
So much so that his contemporary poet from Persia, Hafiz of Shiraz, became jealous and wrote:

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

The Hyderabad state in South India was merged with India in the so called 1948 Hyderabad police action.

Even this piece of information is precious nugget for you do not read about it in Indian text books.

Now the truth about this is out.

According to BBC it was in reality a military action in which hapless people of minority were left at exposed to the marauding majority gangs. Military even persuaded the majority to commit atrocities and did so itself too.

The prime minister, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, worried about his image, set up the Pandit Sunderlal committee to investigate the reports of violence against minorities. Its report was never published.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Imam Ghazali (RA) and Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani (RA) are two big names in the cultural, theological, intellectual and spiritual history of Islam. Recently the latest round of going through the first volume f the Urdu version of the Savior's of Islamic Spirit (Tareekh-e-Dawat-o-Azeemat) by Ali Miyan (RA) gave yours truly some perspective on their status. Yours truly feels that Shaikh Jilani (RA) begins where Imam Ghazali (RA) ends. Imam Ghazali (RA) reached intellectual heights in Abbasid Baghdad such that no higher honour was available. Then the spiritual turmoil ensued in his life and he spent traumatic years in spiritual quagmire. Finally the fog disappeared and he again took up his earlier assignments of teaching but the approach now was spiritual rather then mere intellectual. And then he took retirement from Nizamiya College and got settled at his native Tus. The sundry writings from this period are exquisite pieces of spiritual art work. And we are talking about the person who already has works like Incoherence of Philosophers, Ihya Uloom-id-Deen and Alchemy of Felicity behind him. And yet Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani (RA) is on a different plane altogether. Every single discourse in Futuh-al-Ghaib looks like Imam Ghazali (RA)'s writings in the post retirement period. And the same can be said about other writings by the Shaikh (RA).

Both of these Masha-ikh reached these heights by extreme hard work and life long striving. We Muslims remain indebted to them for their sacrifices as well well the light of Shariah perfected by them for us.

Marhaba/Khushamadeed/Welcome

Dear visitor,If you recognize the following pictures then you are at home. If not then you are welcome as a guest. Here you'll find some tidbits related to some thing called Aligarh Movement with a tilt towards issues related to Science in Islamic context.